Give a newbie a hand!

[Lostick]

Soooo...
I'm just about to start up a FFXI account and I need to know a few things!
Now because I'm most probably gonna be using this as my main forum it would be good to know what world most of the people here have got characters in!
Now I've read up on a alot of this so I understand a few things about it, but it'd be cool if someone could tell me what races are best for which jobs etc, because I only really get that the Tarutaru are good for magic using.
The kind of character I would like would be a warrior but that can use some types of magic, so which race should I consider using? Or does it not really matter that much?

Any help would be most appreciated! :bowdown: And I hope to become a valuable member of this community!
-Lostick

 

[tanls]

Hi Lostick. Welcome to Stratics. As far as servers are concerned, many seem to be heading towards Caitsith. I'm on Pandy, but there are others on other servers.

As far as races are concerned, what it comes down to in the end is..... it really doesn't matter. Tarus have more MP and Int. Galka have high HP, Mithra have high Dex, Elvaan have high Str. Hume are your baseline average. What it all comes down to is, all of that changes and can be modified with gear and merits. So pick the race you want and do the jobs you want. Yes, depending on the race you pick there will be slight advantages but I don't think its enough to take a race out of consideration.

 

[Onewing]

Sounds like you might want to be a Red Mage. Just about any race is good for that, maybe, except for Tarus. There are some red mage players here who might offer more specific advice though.

 

[Trish]

Sounds like you might want to be a Red Mage. Just about any race is good for that, maybe, except for Tarus.

Why do you say that? INT is important for RDM, and Tarus have the most of any race baseline.

 

[Onewing]

Well, I kind of see RDM as a fighter-mage. So any race leaning more towards one end wouldn't be as optimal for that job choice. Not really a bad choice, as tanls said, you can pretty much make whatever you want with all the merits and whatnot.

At least, that's what I thought. I mentioned someone else could chime in because I don't know much about RDM. However, personally, I haven't seen too many Galka or Taru redmages.

 

[Trish]

Yeah, at the lower levels, the RDMs still fight. Once they get dispel (32) and refresh (41), that's all over. LOL
I gotta agree with you on the galka; I've seen more WHM Galkas than RDM. But tarus? Nah they're all over.

 

[Lostick]

Thanks for all the messages in such a short time!
So Red Mage would be the ideal job for me to go for? I guees I'll just end up whatever seems the most appealing to me really
Yeah so, a majority of you guys are in Caithsith but is it the best place for me to go? I mean is it quite an old server with a high population and the like?
Thanks!
-Lostick

 

[Trish]

I can only tell you what I've heard in comparison. Caitsith seems to have more Japanese than the average server, which would indicate it's an older server (I honestly have no idea). It sits around the middle of the economy index (www.ffxiah.com), which indicates steady trade. It appears to be average in population, which can cause problems for finding players to group with, but at the same time rarely are areas overcrowded (except merit party areas, but that's probably true everywhere). I have a friend stuck on Titan because he was hacked then moved there, and you can only transfer worlds every 90 days. He's been trying to build his stuff back up. He has no problems farming some of the things he normally does (tree cuttings, moss), where we are tooth and nail for those things in Caitsith. However, they say Caitsith has only lost two Besieged..es in the history of Besieged, and he says he's tired of losing them over there. The local GameStop guy is on Pandemonium and shouts its praises every time he sees me. It does sound like a good server, and apparently less Japanese than we have on Caitsith (thus, easier to communicate). I think it's the same with other games in the end.

Once you land somewhere and make it your home, it will be the best place no matter what someone else tries to tell you.

 

[Lostick]

So are there no English only servers?
Also, how do you mean tooth and nail? Are some worlds more barren of recources than others? Or do some just have less active auction houses etc?

 

[Trish]

More like too many people trying to farm the same area for the same things.

I don't think there are any all Japanese/English/French/German servers, but I could be wrong.

 

[tanls]

Pandy FTW!!!! LOL.

We've actually had a decent amount of ppl server jump to Pandy since they allowed the ability. My end game shell was created by some ppl who came over from Diabolos, and we've pick up ppl who've come over from other servers too. The reason some of them have given for coming over to Pandy seems to be that Pandy didn't seem as populated as others and that there seemed to be less intense competition for certain end game areas. There's always rumors of ppl who use 3rd party applications and "bots" and according to some of the ppl who came over, they seem to think that Pandy might have fewer than others who do such things. That would make Pandy just that much more fair in terms of being able to get a pop or claim. What I do know, from talking to some of my friends who play on other, older servers is that there doesn't seem to be near the competition on Pandy as on some other servers.

As far as having servers that are NA/JP/EU only, there isn't, but ppl might be moving so that they can find servers that have players that are more in tune with the times they play. I had a friend leave Pandy to join an end game shell on another server because of the time events were. He's from Australia and had a hard time finding an end game shell on Pandy.

 

[Lostick]

Hmm, well I'd prefer to play on a mostly English Speaking server because I think as someone who doesn't know much about the game it'd be best to not have aload of people shouting at me for doing something wrong and asking me to join a party in a language I don't understand :S.
So which server would you guys say has the most English speaking people? I've been looking around and apprently Bahumatt and Quezecotl are good for them. But yeah, it'd be good for some primary and most probably more reliable information.
-Lostick

 

[tanls]

The auto translate function in game will be your friend. The main contributing factor to player population as far as languages go is play time, I think. You can actually see it happen by time zones. As East Coast players start coming on, you'll see the numbers increase and English will usually be dominant. I Play PST. I've seen the shift as time goes and more and more NA players start to log off and JP players start to log on. It's pretty neat. I've been in partys where I was the only NA and just followed along while the rest of them chatted in JP. Sometimes, talking in auto translate gets frustrating because the words you need won't be there and you have to get creative. So regardless of server, your actual play time will determine who you will be playing with.